Sample letters to the editor

Here are five sample letters you can send to the editor of your local newspaper urging sufficient funding to schools: 

Dear editor,

Funding isn’t the only factor when it comes to students’ success in public schools, but it is a critical one.

Oregon schools have made significant gains in recent years to make better use of data, and better approaches to learning to help raise student success and close gaps in achievement.
But they can only stretch resources so far and the truth is that Oregon schools have operated for decades at a funding level significantly below that recommended by the state model for providing a quality education.

Oregon’s public education system is the cornerstone of providing the grounding for a productive workforce and informed citizenry. All of us, no matter our profession or station in life, benefit from strong public schools.

I urge our legislative leaders to share with voters their commitment to fully fund our schools and specific plans for how to meet that commitment. Unless we show our elected leaders that we expect them to step up, I worry deeply about our ability to sustain and expand on the improvement we’ve seen in student achievement.

Sincerely,
[your name]

Dear editor,

In the year 2000, voters changed the Oregon Constitution to require the Legislature to approve sufficient funding for public schools or write a report explaining why it was unable to do so. And for each session since, legislators have dutifully filed a report excusing why we’ve been unable or unwilling to fund our schools.

It is past time for Oregon’s leaders to be offering excuses for failing to adequately educate our children.

It is my hope that our legislators and Gov. Kate Brown will take up the obligation to support our public schools. Please join me in asking them to commit to getting the job done in the 2019 Oregon legislative session. Our children cannot afford another year of excuses.

Sincerely,
[your name]

Dear editor,

Oregon has made important gains in education in recent years by raising our high school graduation rate, and expanding programs for career and technical education and students from historically underserved populations.

Building on that success and ensuring Oregon lives up to our obligation to provide a high-quality public education to all students will require us to ensure that our schools receive stable, sufficient funding to continuing to grow student achievement and provide for all of our children. Oregon voters in 2000 enshrined that goal in the Oregon Constitution, but ensuring the proper funding of our schools has been elusive.

It is past time to redress this gap and our legislators in Salem should commit to doing so. We cannot afford to lose the positive gains we are seeing in education and risk the backsliding we’ve seen time and again when our economy goes into recession.

Our students in the [name here] School District are depending on us to do the right thing.

Sincerely,
[your name]

Dear editor,

The past decade has seen a yearly struggle here in [name here] School District and across the state as school boards try to make ends meet with ever-scarcer resources. That’s why I was encouraged to see that both candidates for governor in the November election made investing in our schools one of their top priorities.

Our revenue system is broken and badly in need of reform, and nothing less than the future of our children and grandchildren is at stake. As a parent and member of the [name here] School Board I intend to hold Gov. Kate Brown accountable for following through and working with our legislators to fix our chronic school funding problem.

Sincerely,
[your name]

Oregon’s revenue system is failing our schools and students. School districts throughout the state are struggling with soaring costs that are not being matched by adequate investment into our children’s education.

We need smart fixes to our broken revenue system that will give schools the funds needed to improve educational outcomes for students across Oregon. This is why I was pleased to see education funding become the central theme of the recent gubernatorial election.

Now it is time for Gov. Kate Brown to follow through and work with the Legislature to raise more revenue to give schools what they need. All Oregonians have a stake in improving our public education system.

Sincerely,
[your name]